Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)

If you are in the Human Resources Industry in Canada you might have come across the acronym (LMIA) formerly called (LMO)and if you haven't then you haven't tested the international human resources market, the world of work permits, Employment & Social Development Canada (ESDC) formerly (HSDRC) and Immigration Refugee & Citizenship Canada(IRCC) formerly Citizenship & Immigration Canada(CIC); yes a lot of former this, former that, a whole lot of big changes. These changes have occurred within the last 5 years, the changes have come swift and fast that even some online web pages still have a couple redundant information still bearing the former names.

Good news, if you were familiar with the former names, agencies and applications then you are in luck; the spirit of the creation of these agencies and applications are still the same. ESDC is still around to protect Canadian Citizens, Permanent Residents(PR Holders) and only give permission to companies to hire foreign employees after exhausting all options to find and hire a Canadaian Citizen or a PR holder for the vacant job position and they can't find one, please note that the search process and failure of not finding a Canadian Citizen or PR Holder must be documented, that is very important.

Now the application submitted to request for this permission by the ESDC is what we in the Canadian Immigration Community call the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). After submitting the LMIA application, the organization/company or employer should hope for a positive decision. After receiving a positive LMIA(which is sometimes called a confirmation letter), the employer gives a copy to the employee to then apply for a work permit from IRCC.

From the above, it is clear that getting a foreign talent to work for an employer is a 2 thronged process, first the employer gets permission to hire a foreign national from the federal department in change of the Employment and Labour, then the foreign national gets permission to work in Canada from the Federal department in charge of Immigration. I must state that their are exemptions to the LMIA process but majority of foreign workers do have to go through this process.

The LMIA application process is a very complex process and it is adviced that employers hire professionals to help in this process. Below are some of the factors to keep in mind when preparing a LMIA application;

1. The LMIA is the employers responsibility. The employer must hire, pay the consultant preparing the LMIA application and also pay the application fee to ESDC.
2. The LMIA application fee is $1,000 CAD(as at day of writing this and subject to change)
3. The LMIA must explain, document and show the recruitment effort and failures in finding a suitable Canadian Citizen or PR Holder.
4. The LMIA application must explain the complications of the job position, the salary, job description and efforts that will be taken to train or recruit Canadian citizens or Permanent residence holders that will replace the foreign worker upon expiration of their work permit
5. The LMIA application must have a specific start and end date for the expected hired Foreign Worker because all Foreign worker positions are Temporary.

There are a host of other issues involved in applying for a LMIA. Contact me today if you have any further questions or are interested in hiring or recruiting a foreign skilled worker for your company.

About The Author

Olayinka Ogundipe is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant with Arborway Immigration Inc a Canadian Immigration Firm located in the GTA. He is a member in good standing with The Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC), which is the Canadian government mandated supervisory, licensing and regulatory body for all Canadian Immigration Consultants and also an Ontario appointed Commissioner of Affidavit on Immigration, Citizenship and Refugee matters.You can follow him on Facebook @ArborwayImmigration, Instagram @ArborwayImmigration & LinkedIn @ArborwayImmigration